Moodle Blocks. Home Page Before Login. The Home Page After Login

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1 Moodle Blocks A Block displays information in a small area in one of the side columns of Moodle. Every Block adds functionality to the Moodle site or your course. After login, the Home page blocks will have changed to reflect your personal settings. Home Page Before Login The Home Page After Login

2 Calendar Block In the previous screenshot, after you login, you can now see the coloured boxes marked on the Calendar. As the name suggests, this block provides a calendar function for your course(s). Dates for quizzes, deadlines for assignments and other reminders or events will be displayed on this calendar and will be highlighted in orange. When you hover your mouse over the date, you can read the description of the event or click on it for more details. When you click on it, the following screen will open: You can also use this calendar to add personal events or reminders. To do that, click on New Event. The New Event Page will open. Here you can specify the settings of this event: Name: Event name Description: Description of this event Date: The date and time of this event Duration: The duration of this event Repeats: Specifies whether this event is going to be repeated on regular basis Click on Save changes to create this event. When you go back to the home page you will see that the date of the event inside the Calendar block is highlighted in blue (User).

3 Messages Block The Messages block shows any new messages you have received. To Read Messages To view a message, click the envelope icon next to the sender s name. This will open up a chat window, much like in MSN or other instant messaging services, allowing you to read and reply to the message. If a message is sent to you when you aren t logged in to Moodle then the message will be sent as an to your account. To Change Message Settings For other options, click the Messages link under the Navigation block. The screen below will appear, giving you options to add contacts and search for other Moodle users. You can manage your messaging settings by clicking on Messaging under the Settings block as highlighted in the screenshot below.

4 To Send Messages To send a message to a Moodle user, click on his/her name in your contact list. If s/he is not in your contact list, go to the search field, and search for the specific user. Click on his/her name in the search result. When you click on the user s name, the following screen will appear, allowing you to compose a message to the contact you have selected. My Courses Block This block displays the courses in which you are enrolled and provides a link to a list of all courses on the site. If courses are missing from the list, you must contact the course coordinator. You can search for missing courses by clicking on the All courses link.

5 My Home Block Each Moodle user also has their own home page. This can be accessed by clicking on the My home link located in the Navigation block. In the middle section there is a list of all the courses you are enrolled in. You can access your course(s) by clicking on to the relevant course name. As this is your own home page, you can customise this page to your own preferences, by clicking on the Customise this page button located in the upper-right corner of the page in the grey bar.

6 Clicking this button will enable you to begin editing your home page. At the bottom-right corner of the page, you will find the Add a block option. Click on the drop-down arrow to reveal the options of Blocks you can add to your page. You can also edit existing blocks using the following options found in the Block headings. Hide allows you to hide the block Configuration allows you to configure the block on the page Delete allows you to delete the block Move allows you to move the block Remember to click on Stop customising this page when you have made all your changes in order to return to the standard view of your home page.

7 Docking and Undocking Blocks Blocks can be docked so they are hidden, from view providing greater area for the main content. Docking the Navigation and Settings blocks is particularly useful if you have a small computer screen. To move a Block to the dock, click on the blue/grey box (see picture below) located in the upper-right corner of each Block heading. The Block(s) will then be moved to the edge of the screen, as shown below, allowing the centre Block to be more easily viewed. The contents of the docked Block can still be accessed in their docked position, by simply hovering over the Block or clicking on the Block. The Block can be undocked by clicking on the blue/grey box (see picture left) again.